


Det. George and the Dragon

by InfiniteKittie



Category: Original Work
Genre: Detective, Drug Use, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Saint George and the Dragon, fairytale, fairytale inspired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:34:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26438782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfiniteKittie/pseuds/InfiniteKittie
Summary: A modern day interpretation of Saint George and the Dragon.It’s up to Detective George Niles to slay the Dragon plaguing the city of glass. However, it becomes that much more difficult when the Dragon is not an actual fire breathing dragon...With the richest family breathing down his neck, can he save their daughter? Who is somehow mixed up in the Dragon.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Det. George and the Dragon

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all,  
> I am still working through my Sam and Colby fics, just kind of falling into a funk, and guess I’m feeling like I’m drowning a bit. 
> 
> Anywho, this is a very short story I wrote for one of my year 12 assignments, two years ago. I haven’t really edited it but I reread it and actually really love how it turned out. So here you go.

Beyond the city of glass and towers that reach the sky and touch the clouds, lays a single house at the bottom of a hill. A house that could never be considered a home, without windows and without a door. Tangled green weaves and winds around the broken bricks that could hardly be called walls. The ceiling is hanging on by the tip of its teeth, unable to bear any weight. It should be abandoned and never acknowledged but there are always those that scramble underneath its crumbling frame. Those whose lives have been ruined, devastated and stripped away. Those, that have been taken by the ‘Dragon’. 

The Dragon was the newest enemy of the city of glass, the dirt that plagued its citizens. It twisted and wormed its way inside, infecting the minds of the city’s people, becoming an unbreakable addiction. It clings to those without piles of money, forcing them out of their homes and into the house down the hill. They don’t come back and no one follows. Those people are no longer considered as part of society. They often started so high, only to have the Dragon drag them so far down. They have nothing to their names and to the people in the glass city; they might as well be dead. They are forgotten and erased as the city of glass protectors try to scrub the dirt away from their home. But it’s an impossible job, to completely erase the Dragon. 

In the centre of the city of glass, a grand building stands tall. Blue decorates the otherwise black and white facade. A single word that is carved into the building inspires hope and safety. Inside the police precinct, lays paperwork and files detailing who the people were before they fell victim to the Dragon. Many of the documents find themselves in the line, waiting to be shredded. They are cold cases, ones that no one cared enough to finish. Every trail leads to the house in disrepair, the place not even the police will venture. 

* * *

One desk, however, sweeps up these cold cases before they reach the shredder, desperately trying to find a solution. Detective George Niles works tirelessly day and night to find those selling and producing the Dragon, attempting to bring the addicts back to the glass city. He has no support. But it doesn’t stop him, he will slay this Dragon. 

His day arrives when a known dealer is consumed by the Dragon. The police chief tasks Niles with the mission of solving the case. “Regardless of the destruction they caused people, they are now a victim too.” The sarcasm dripped off the detective’s tongue. Out of the hundred people who had been taking the Dragon, only this single person will be saved. That was how the world worked. Everyone who takes Dragon is a victim that needs to be helped, especially if their family has the money. Not everyone still has family that care and those that do, don’t have the riches to expend. 

His head hangs low, his eyes invisible to passersby as the detective makes his way down the hill. His black dress shoes becoming brown as the path wobbles and loses any stable concreting, as the path becomes uncared for. Voices that unnerve the Detective begin whispering, whispering sentences that he knows will stick inside his mind, eternally. 

I̶t̷ ̷s̵e̴e̵p̴s̸ ̴i̴n̸t̴o̸ ̸t̷h̷e̸ ̸r̸e̶d̵.̴ ̵

T̴h̷e̸ ̴r̴e̷d̵ ̵t̸h̶a̵t̵ r̶u̶n̷s̸ ̴b̵e̸n̸e̸a̴t̶h̷ ̶t̴h̵e̷ ̸s̸k̷i̵n̶ ̴

D̴r̸i̷v̵i̷n̶g̵ ̷w̷i̵t̷h̴ ̶t̸w̸o̸ ̷a̷i̴m̷s̸.̴ ̷

T̷h̶e̶ ̷h̵e̵a̶d̴ ̶a̷n̷d̵ ̶t̴h̵e̶ ̷h̸e̴a̸r̷t̷.̷ ̵

The closer Niles gets to the house, the louder these whispers are. His heart begins to beat so fast he believes that it might fly out of his chest. His breathing becomes erratic and his hands shake. The detective is terrified, but he continues towards the whispering, shoving that fear as far down as it can go. 

I̴t̶ ̴c̴o̴n̵t̷o̴r̸t̷s̶ ̴a̸n̴d̸ ̶d̷i̷s̴t̷o̷r̸t̴s̴ ̸v̷i̵s̴i̷o̵n̴.̴ ̴

R̴i̶p̵p̴i̴n̵g̸ ̶a̶w̷a̷y̵ ̸e̴v̸e̴r̸y̴ ̴d̵e̵s̶i̵r̸e̷.̶ ̶

T̷h̴e̸ ̴D̷r̸a̴g̴o̵n̴ ̴w̴a̴n̷t̶s̸ ̶m̴o̴r̴e̵,̴ ̵m̵o̸r̷e̷ ̴a̸n̶d̵ ̸m̸o̶r̷e̷.̵ ̸

The door was boarded up a long time ago, back when there was a suburb down the hill. A perfect place for those who are victims of the Dragon. Dust attacks the air and nails torpedo to the ground as Niles reefs the boards from, what was once, the door. Light filters into the abandoned house, blinding the whispers. 

His heart threatens to stop as he steps inside the run-down house. Every face from each cold case, curled up in the darkest corners, scattering away from the light. Their mouths are moving, forming the words that are already haunting him. 

/Mo̴r̴e̵,̴ ̵m̵o̸r̷e̷ ̴a̸n̶d̵ ̸m̸o̶r̷e̷.̵

His eyes scan the house, taking note of the structural integrity of the building. They don't have long before it will collapse, before it gives up. Further around the room, there's pockets of plants whose leaves are a sickening mixture of green and purple; Dragon. Everything falls into place. 

* * *

The Dragon originated in this house, begged to be found by some poor soul. With no money to their names, they turned to the one business no one could ignore; drugs. They must've cared for the plant and encouraged it to continue growing, until there was enough. Patient zero, as Niles would refer to them as, would have experimented to get the addictiveness as high as possible. His heart dropped as his mind clicked. Patient zero would have experimented on themselves, allowing the Dragon to take root and consume all and leave nothing but a shell to carry on, to pass on the drug. 

The doorway allowed enough light for Niles to recognise the ex-dealer, the one whose family had paid thousands of dollars to ensure her safe return. "Why?" His voice croaked as he bent down in front of her, more questions in his eyes. She tilted her head to the side, not comprehending what he was asking. He cursed as her eyes betrayed how much the Dragon had consumed. At least her family would see her again. 

The detective straightened up and brushed his jacket and slacks. Detective Niles rings his police Chief, asking for help to bring them back to the Glass City. A stick in one hand and a lighter in the other; the only way to slay the Dragon was to burn the source. "Good riddance." 

* * *

Weeks later, Detective George Niles sits alone at his empty desk. No more Dragon meant no more cold cases. The whispers that haunted his every waking moment, died down every time he received news about one of the victims. It was bittersweet when most of the people he rescued would never be the person they were again. Niles has asked himself a hundred times, 'was it worth it?' To save them from one fate but condemn them to another? 

"Detective Niles?" A feminine voice interrupts his thoughts. His eyes lift their gaze and for two seconds he wished he hadn't. The ex-dealer stood in front of him, her eyes shone with awareness and curiosity, no trace of the Dragon's mark. "I wanted to thank you, for saving me. If you hadn't, I would have become like the rest of them." Niles bit his tongue so hard that blood drowned his taste buds. He wanted to snap at her;

_'You were part of the reason many ended up the way they did! This should be your fault, you should feel guilty!'_

But he knew it was a lost cause. She had a family who loved her as well as all the money she could possibly ask for. She didn't need to concern herself with the fate of lower class citizens. "Just doing my job." He mumbled dismissively. 

"I appreciate it, still. I was wondering if-" He knew where this conversation was leading. The detective had been told by numerous people that he deserved a reward for destroying Dragon, but this wasn't the reward he wished for. 

* * *

He didn't look back as he strode out of the precinct, the ex-dealer still by his desk. George Niles had slain the Dragon and saved the city of glass, but he hadn't changed the city nor the people inside it. That was the true monster, wasn't it? The true enemy of the city was the people who lived inside it. Maybe the city of glass was no longer the home that George Niles wanted. Maybe that was his reward; to finally have the courage to leave. 

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on Twitter @katrinaskiwi


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